Tag Archives: kung fu teacher

Professional Martial Arts Instructor Manual

Good Cinco de Mayo morning!
I love the US…
we get to celebrate independence twice!
July 4th and May 5th.
And that means we have twice the freedom
to work out twice as hard!

Now,
got a new book coming out.
I’ve been working on this for a while.
If anybody has wondered where I’ve been,
I’ve been sitting at the computer
pounding the keys madly,
making…
THE BEST AND MOST AUTHORITATIVE TOME
ON THE SUBJECT OF TEACHING THE MARTIAL ARTS
EVER!

In fact,
when you see what I’ve done
you will understand that this book sets a new standard.
Far beyond Black Belt,
far beyond Master,
and even…FAR BEYOND MASTER INSTRUCTOR!
Heck,
it’s even better than a Founder.

Let me give you a few facts on this book.
The book is 8 1/2 by 11.
Those are big pages,
especially compared to normal books.
There are 232 pages.
The book is JAMMED full of stuff.
There is a lot of old material,
pieces of the master instructor course,
the art of matrix karate from the matrix karate course,
drills and exercises from out of print books,
and a sh*tload of new stuff.

What the book is
is how I teach a person
from white belt to black belt.
All the tricks I use,
all the drills,
all the extra drills and how to make more.
and all in the right order.

Yes,
this is a very creative book,
it is not a MSMD book
(monkey see monkey do)
but rather a how to book that shows how,
and encourages one to create their own drills.
Use mine as the template,
configure to your art,
make new drills.
You’ll see how I do it,
how I break out of the same old same old
of the classical method,
to make the best martial artists in the world.

Now,
the inspiration for this book.

About twenty or so years ago
I had a few students
and no place to teach them.
So I walked into World Gym
and asked if I could rent a room.
They said no,
and hired me as a personal trainer.
A martial arts personal trainer.
I was a bit shocked,
to say the least.
They were paying me a couple of hundred a month
to teach students who were already paying me
sixty a month.
Sweet, eh?

So I taught for a while,
then I went and did other things.

A couple of years ago I decided to do this again.
A gym is a perfect place to find students,
and even dedicated students.
The people at a gym want to get fit,
they are more than willing to learn martial arts
if approached in the right way.
So I went to a gym,
asked the owner if he needed a trainer,
and he said no.
I blinked.
I had been talking to personal trainers
and they said there was a huge demand.
That if I was good,
I could make up to a hundred dollars an hour.
But the owner had said no to me.
Huh!

So I went to another gym,
nope.
Another one.
Nope.
No…no…no.
WTF?

So I managed to get ahold of a gym owner
and I asked him why,
and his answer surprised me
(though it shouldn’t have)
He said:
‘Martial Artists don’t make good trainers.
They don’t know how to run classes,
every art is different so there is no standard
and they just aren’t professional.’

Martial Artists don’t make good trainers.
Okay.
Let’s take it point by point.

They don’t know how to run classes?
But they have learned in classes,
they should know all about classes!
but they tended to drive students off,
costing the gym owner money.

Every art is different…well, yes,
and I could understand how that might make things difficult
for someone who wants to give his customers
a standard experience.

But the thing that REALLY got me was…
Martial Artists just aren’t professional.

That was the kicker.
Because I consider myself a totally professional martial artist!

But…how was the gym owner supposed to know that?
How was he to know that I knew enough arts
and could teach classical arts
in a totally standard manner?
How was he to know that I was different from all the others?
That I was a true professional?

Now,
here’s the thing:
gym owners have actually had this problem for a long time,
and not just with martial artists.
Back a couple of decades
and anybody who could lift a bit of iron
could call himself a personal trainer
and get away with it.
You had knuckleheads that were actually damaging clients!
And there was no standard of professionalism.

What was the solution?
The solution were the rise of companies
that gave trainers certification.

Todays trainers have to go through courses
which give very intense data
on how to teach
the types of exercises
musculature and skeletal structure,
cardio and aerobics and endurance vs resistance training
and nutrition and the structure of a muscle and…
and on and on and on.

And I know this is true
because I signed up for a course
and got a first hand look at what the training is like.

And there is absolutely nothing like it in the martial arts.

Nothing.

So I looked at the training manual of one company
and I wrote my own training manual.

I didn’t duplicate the whole thing on muscles and stuff,
you should do a personal trainer course on your own for that.
But I did lay out the martial arts
using my courses and a lot of new stuff
to create somebody who knows what a martial arts instructor has to know
and can actually teach it.

Never been anything like it before in the history of the Martial Arts.

Professional Martial Arts Instructor.

Now,
if you do this book,
actually, it is a course,
then you learn the martial arts from the inside out.
And,
you learn how to teach.
It’s how I teach,
and I have had a number of schools,
taught classes everywhere,
and they have all paid off.

So this is my answer to that gym owner’s remark,
that martial artists aren’t professional.

No, we aren’t,
but know we can be.

A person who does this book
and takes the test for it
will be certified,
and that means he can walk into ANY gym
and say
‘I’m a professional.’
He can show his certificate,
show the book he had to do,
and,
zingo bingo
you’re head of the line
for a job doing what you want to do,
for a job teaching martial arts.

And I wasn’t kidding,
here in Los Angeles,
people can make $100 an hour
teaching some of these big name people.
Easy.

Heck,
Bruce Lee was charging $300 an hour,
and that was back in the early 70s!

So,
the money is there,
and now the method to the money is there.

The only problem…
have you seen how expensive the personal trainer courses are?
We’re talking $500!
You get a book,
a test,
some sample questions,
but then you can get a job!

And,
my book,
it’s got pieces of several courses,
books,
books that are out of print,
new stuff,
and it’s all organized.
It’s lined up 1, 2, 3…
from white belt to black belt.

If you learn this stuff,
know how to smile to people,
then you can get a job.

So,
the book will be out officially
in a couple of weeks.
Right now I am ordering proofs,
getting editing and such,
and exploring POD methods (Print On Demand).
The price of a book like this,
full color,
this big
is about $30.
Then I’ve got to mail it.
Probably $20 bucks there.
But if somebody wants a proof,
I’ll probably charge $75.
It might be more,
I won’t know until the book is in the final stages of production
and I am quoted a price on proofs.
But I’m guessing $75 might be fair.
And the price,
once it is officially released,
will probably be over $100.
So this is a deal.

You think I won’t get it?
Ha!
I’ll get a company that does certification for personal trainers,
piggy back on them,
and it will sell like hotcakes.

After all,
it’s a path to a real fun job,
a break out from the same old same old hum drum 9 to 5.

But,
for the next week or two,
I’ll sell proofs.

You’ll have to be willing to wait a week or so to get it,
because the company has to mail it to me,
then I have to mail it to you.

And the only reason I’m willing to do this
is because I need feedback.
I need wins to put on a site,
I need people to tell me where I’ve made mistakes.

but,
there it is.

And,
let me emphasize one last thing…
a Black Belt is an expert
a Master is fantastic,
but that doesn’t mean they know how to teach,
it doesn’t mean they are professional.
So this book raises the standard.
This book creates martial artists that are better than a black belt, master, or whatever.
A fellow who can teach,
is responsible for the future of the martial arts.
It doesn’t matter how much you know
if you can’t pass it on.
So a Professional Martial Arts Instructor
is actually the highest rank possible.
Nothing higher.

Even a founder has to know how to teach and be professional.

So a PMAI is the highest rank there is.

Okay,
thanks for listening.
If you’re interested in picking up a proof of
Professional Martial Arts Instructor
send me an email at
aganzul@gmail.com

Proofs will probably be available in the next few days,
almost definitely by Monday.

How cruel, eh? A Kung Fu Instructor beating up an old man! Guy ought to be taken out and shot! Unless, of course, the Kung fu teacher happens to be me.
I was pumping gas at a station and this old guy comes along. He’s got a cane, he’s overweight, but he is thick, like he actually has muscle under the fat. what was worse, he was wearing camo! I mean, should old people wear camo? I don’t think so!
Except for that observation, I didn’t think too much on the guy. Went ahead and pumped my gas, and I was thinking back over the years.
I remember a guy who I saw on the street, challenged me with a look. That was some thirty years ago.
And, I remembered being a student, thinking about this new thing I was learning called Kenpo. And then, for some reason, I started thinking about how, when I was first learning martial arts, I would fantasize what I would do if I had to fight somebody.
I wouldthink about their shape, whether they wrestled or had a weapon, what my opening move would be.
And, thinking of those long ago times, I walked into the gas station to pay.
Old guy in camo wasin front of me.
I studied his body carefully. Large, probably ex-military, probably knew some stuff, but the way he was coughing–as he ordered cigarettes–told me that his prime was past.
And, grinning inside, I started that old exercise of evaluating an opponent.
I would kick his cane to the side and slam a foot in his groin. When he started to bend I would throw a haymaker to the side of his head, then I would move in with a knee, make that big gut of his explode in pain!
Then, the old guy finished paying for his cigs and left.
And I was left with my fantasy. Grinning like a fool. The kid behind the counter probably though I was daffy. And he probably wouldn’t have understood even if I told him what I had been thinking.
Anyway, it wouldn’t have been much of a fight. Even though the camo guy was younger than me (did I forget to mention that? Grin) he had let his life slid into the crapper. Wheezing, coughing, struggling along on a cane. All that good old muscle of his was worth nothing, it was just a backpack full of rocks, and he was walking uphill.
And me? I sauntered out of the gas station, hopped in the truck, and went home…to work out and stay young. Cause that’s what a kung fu instructor does! Yeehaw!